hreflang for a business that sells in three languages
The rule that breaks most implementations is reciprocity. If two pages do not both point to each other, the annotations are ignored, and the codes have to follow ISO 639-1 for language and ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 for region. A three language site is nine references plus one fallback, and that is the whole job.
The reciprocity rule
Google states it plainly: if two pages do not both point to each other, the tags will be ignored. That single sentence explains most broken implementations, because the usual pattern is a German page listing the English and Spanish versions while the English page lists nothing.
Each version also references itself. That feels redundant and is not: the set of annotations on every page has to be complete and identical, which is what makes the group verifiable from any member of it.
There are 3 ways to declare this, and Google describes them as equivalent: HTML link elements, HTTP headers, or the sitemap. Pick one and use it everywhere, because mixing methods is how half a set goes missing.
The count for a three language site
Take a page in 3 languages. Each of the 3 pages carries 3 annotations, one per version including itself, which is 9 references in total. Add 1 x-default per page to name the fallback for visitors whose settings match nothing, and the set is 12 lines across 3 pages.
Now the codes. The language code follows ISO 639-1 and the optional region code follows ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2. Google names the three common failures directly: missing return links, incorrect language codes and incorrect region codes such as EU or UK, neither of which is a valid region code in that standard.
So of 3 documented mistakes, 2 are typing errors in a two letter code and 1 is a missing line. None of them is a strategy problem, which is worth remembering before anyone proposes an international SEO project.
| Item | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Language versions | 3 | en, de, es |
| Annotations per page | 3 | Including a reference to itself |
| References in total | 9 | All reciprocal |
| x-default entries | 3 | One per page, naming one fallback |
| Declaration methods available | 3 | HTML, HTTP header, sitemap |
What hreflang does not do
It does not decide which version ranks. It tells a search engine which versions exist and which one suits a given user, which is a different and smaller claim than most descriptions of it suggest.
And it does not replace real translation. Three pages carrying the same text with swapped headlines are three pages that say the same thing, and annotating them correctly only makes that easier to notice.
Check the set once after any redesign. A template change that drops the annotations from one of the three pages breaks the whole group, because reciprocity fails for every pair that included it.
Questions and answers
Why are my hreflang tags ignored?
Is UK a valid region code?
Do I need x-default?
Which method should I use?
Sources
- Google Search Central, Localized versions of your pages Reciprocity, the three methods, code standards and common mistakes
- Google Search Central, Sitemaps overview The sitemap as one of the three declaration methods
